50 Fun Facts About Gunsmoke

In what year did Gunsmoke first air on CBS radio?

It debuted with an episode called 'Billy the Kid' and ran unsponsored at first, with the network paying for it out of its own pocket.

Whose deep voice played Marshal Matt Dillon on the radio series?

He later said the producers had auditioned everybody else first because he was already in too many radio shows, then hired him after two lines.

Who played Marshal Matt Dillon for the show's entire television run?

He stood 6 feet 7 inches, which had kept him out of Navy flight training in World War II.

Which movie star introduced the first television episode on camera in 1955?

The intro predicted the show's star would become a big name; the persistent story that he had turned down the part himself is disputed by the show's first director.

How many television episodes were broadcast over the show's entire run?

That count stood as the record for scripted American primetime television until 2018.

The series is set in Dodge City, in which state?

The stories take place in the 1870s, after the railroad reached the town in 1872 and turned it into a booming cattle stop.

What was the name of the saloon owned by Miss Kitty?

A real bar of the same name operated in Dodge City from about 1874 until it burned down in 1885.

Who played Chester Goode, Matt's limping assistant, from 1955 to 1964?

He heard he had won the part while working a side job delivering flowers.

Who played the scruffy deputy Festus Haggen?

The twangy Festus voice was invented for the role and sounded nothing like the actor, who had been a big-band and cowboy-group singer.

Which actor played Doc Adams for the entire television run?

He appeared in 604 episodes and based his country doctor on the physician from his own hometown in Kansas.

Who played Miss Kitty Russell on television?

She stayed 19 seasons and left before the final year, when a new saloon owner named Miss Hannah took her place.

Which future movie star played the blacksmith Quint Asper from 1962 to 1965?

He beat out 300 other actors and later called the show the happiest period of his life.

Buck Taylor's character Newly O'Brien came to town practising what trade before becoming a deputy?

He also studied medicine under Doc, and by the 1987 reunion movie he was the town's marshal.

Which sitcom did CBS cancel in 1967 to clear room after reversing its decision to drop Gunsmoke?

That show had earlier used the Gunsmoke jail set for dream sequences in which Gilligan imagined himself as the Marshal.

In a 1953 Time interview, producer Norman Macdonnell said the radio Kitty was secretly what?

Time later observed that she was obviously not selling chocolate bars.

The TV Doc's actor chose the first name Galen in honor of whom?

The radio Doc had been Charles Adams; the TV version was billed as G. Adams before the G was pinned down.

On radio, Doc had changed his name and come west to escape a charge of what?

His real name was Calvin Moore, and in early episodes he cheerfully counted on autopsy fees whenever the Marshal shot someone.

Gunsmoke's Doc reportedly borrowed his surname from which cartoonist?

The suggestion came from the radio Marshal himself, who found the early Doc's enthusiasm for autopsy fees fitting for the creator of a macabre cartoon family.

On the radio series, Chester's ad-libbed surname was what?

The character was originally just 'Townsman' in the script until the radio Marshal said to call him Chester or something.

Howard McNear, the radio Doc, later became famous as which Andy Griffith Show character?

He also turned up six times on the TV Gunsmoke in other roles, including storekeeper Howard Rudd.

What title did Gunsmoke's creators Macdonnell and Meston originally propose for the radio show?

CBS insisted on the title an executive named Harry Ackerman had already coined for an earlier audition script.

After two unsponsored years, the radio show got its first sponsor in 1954. What product was it?

The producers had feared any sponsor would demand they clean the show up and put Matt on a pure white charger.

The first radio episode was named after which Old West outlaw?

Kitty was not in it; the actress who later voiced her appeared that day as an old flame of Matt's named Francie Richards.

Under what title was the series broadcast in the United Kingdom?

A British newspaper comic strip and BBC hardcover annuals were also published under that name.

The theme's lyrics were never heard on the show, but which singing cowboy recorded them in 1955?

The tune, composed by Rex Koury, is titled 'Old Trails' and was also known as 'Boothill'.

The TV series was filmed on land in Thousand Oaks that became the campus of which college?

Nearby Wildwood Regional Park served as the open range around the town.

Which show finally passed Gunsmoke's scripted-episode record in April 2018?

The milestone episode opened with Maggie Simpson in a gunfight against Marshal Dillon.

Which series broke Gunsmoke's season record for a live-action primetime drama in September 2019?

The original Law & Order had tied the record in 2010 before its cancellation.

A 2013 tally by Marshall Trimble found the TV Matt Dillon had been shot at least how many times?

The same count had him knocked unconscious 29 times, stabbed three times and poisoned once.

Miss Kitty's actress and her husband ran an early captive breeding program for which animal?

She also brought her pet lion, Kemo, onto the set in 1974, and later helped found Arizona's largest no-kill shelter.

The show's star was the older brother of which Mission: Impossible actor?

The younger brother took a maternal family name as his stage surname; the family name had been Aurness.

Landing at Anzio in 1944, the future TV Marshal was ordered off the landing craft first. Why?

The water came up to his waist; he was badly wounded in the leg soon after and the pain bothered him on horseback for the rest of his life.

Before playing the Marshal, the show's star played the title monster in which 1951 science-fiction film?

He later fought giant ants in Them! before settling into Westerns.

Before acting, the Festus actor sang with which famous Western vocal group?

He was also a son-in-law of director John Ford and played Charlie McCorry in The Searchers.

Festus was patterned on a real man from the actor's Colorado boyhood, nicknamed for what?

Cedar Jack regularly came to town, got drunk and ended up in the jail run by the actor's father, the county sheriff.

The Festus actor voiced Nutsy the Vulture in which 1973 Disney animated film?

He kept touring fairs and rodeos in Western stage shows for years after the series ended.

Why did Chester end up with a stiff leg?

The actor, a college decathlete, chose a stiff leg because it was simple, consistent and still let him do everything a Western required.

Chester's actor starred in Spielberg's first film, a 1971 TV movie about a killer truck. What was it called?

He was also the twitchy motel night man in Orson Welles's Touch of Evil.

Doc's actor missed seven episodes in 1971 for what reason?

Pat Hingle filled in as Dr. John Chapman while he recovered.

Which classic horror role had bartender actor Glenn Strange played three times for Universal?

Boris Karloff coached him personally after hours; he stayed behind the bar for 222 episodes.

Why did CBS create the deputy Thad Greenwood in 1965?

The network was in a contract dispute with its leading man; once it was settled, the character was written out.

Fran Ryan, Miss Hannah in the final season, had earlier played Doris Ziffel on which sitcom?

She returned as Hannah in the 1987 reunion movie, one of the few series faces to do so.

In the 1974 spin-off Dirty Sally, the title character's wagon was pulled by a mule named what?

Sally and outlaw Cyrus Pike were headed for the California gold fields; the show lasted 14 episodes.

Where was the 1987 reunion movie Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge actually filmed?

The retired Marshal is now a fur trapper, and Kitty comes back from New Orleans when she hears he is dying.

Why was Festus absent from the 1987 reunion movie?

He argued he should be paid according to Festus's place in the character hierarchy; the writers made Newly the marshal instead.

The real Dodge City saloon that shared its name with Kitty's was named after a resort town in which state?

Co-owner William Harris named it for his hometown; the bar burned in 1885 and was never rebuilt.

In what year did the TV series air its final original episode?

CBS never announced the cancellation; the cast learned they were finished from the trade papers.

Arvo Ojala, the gunman in the opening shootout, once pranked the producers by filming the sequence how?

Ojala was a quick-draw coach who claimed he could draw and fire in one-sixth of a second.

Which 1993 country hit name-checks Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty?

It was Toby Keith's debut single.

How many seasons did the TV series run?

It aired Saturdays at 10 pm for the first 12 of them before moving to Mondays.